"Latin is easy if it's taught right"- A priest determined to keep Latin alive;

[SGP]

I am not someone who would do some Latin Revisions because of the same reasons a priest would do them.
But I agree on Latin being easy if it is taught right. There is one German book, or even more than one, on how to converse in it (by speaking). And I still don't know why many of the Latin School Teachers emphasize being able to read (or maybe to write, too) only. This approach is Very Medieval Learning to me. But I am not considering anything to be obsolete just because it is very old of course. What I am hinting to is something entirely different.

[lichtrausch]

Reginald Foster, Vatican Latinist Who Tweeted in the Language, Dies at 81

Reginald Foster, a former plumber’s apprentice from Wisconsin who, in four decades as an official Latinist of the Vatican, dreamed in Latin, cursed in Latin, banked in Latin and ultimately tweeted in Latin, died on Christmas Day at a nursing home in Milwaukee. He was LXXXI.

His death was confirmed by the Vatican. He had tested positive for the coronavirus two weeks ago, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. [...]

In 2006, however, he was dismissed from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he had taught for decades, because of his longstanding refusal to charge his students tuition. Father Foster continued the class, speakeasy-style, in a series of off-campus locations.

[Querneus]

There's a bunch of lore about Reginald Foster going around, but today I saw this bit on the Wikipedia article on him that I liked...

Foster lived in Rome in an ascetic manner, sleeping on the floor under a thin blanket, giving away all gifts except books. Instead of wearing the clerical garb, which he believed no longer corresponded to the dress of poor people, he instead donned blue pants and shirts from Sears, with plain black sneakers and a blue polyester windbreaker in cold weather. The Swiss Guards called him il benzinaio (the gas-station attendant), and there were complaints about his appearance.

[mentecuerpo]

My impression is that nobody speaks Latin, except probably the priest mentioned by the OP.
As a matter of fact, in the Vatican, Italian is the language, not Latin.

I tried to find a youtube video of people speaking Latin to each other, and I could not find one.

It truly is a dead language.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21412604

According to this article, Father Reginal Foster estimates the number of fluent Latin speakers as no more than 100. And he does not see things getting better.

According to Foster, the Vatican language is not Latin but Italian, and to a lesser extent English. "You have to speak Italian properly. If not, you're just out of it."

My daughter is taking mandatory Latin in her 6th grade in school, and I'm not too fond of it. I eavesdropped on the zoom Latin Lesson and pretty quickly realized that the Latin teacher knows grammar, but he does not speak Latin. Not a surprise here.

If someone finds a youtube video of people conversing in Latin to each other, can you please share the link?

[vonPeterhof]

If someone finds a youtube video of people conversing in Latin to each other, can you please share the link?

Luke Ranieri's YouTube channel is a good place to start.

[Beli Tsar]

If someone finds a youtube video of people conversing in Latin to each other, can you please share the link?

Luke Ranieri's YouTube channel is a good place to start.

And there are plenty more places Latin is spoken: Latin Discord channels, Latin Conversational Facebook groups, Reddit Latin has its own Discord, etc. Etc.
There are a *lot* of podcasts, too - e.g. Sermones Raedarii, Quomodo Dictur, etc etc.
If you really want, you can learn conversational Latin via roleplaying (Dungeons and Dragons, Cyberpunk) at thepatrologist.com.
Conversational Latin is not dead, even if the standards aren't amazingly high.

[guyome]

For more about Foster, Stille's book chapter can be read here. Thavis's The Vatican Diaries also devotes a chapter to him. There's also John Byron Kuhner's "The Vatican's Latinist" published in 2017.

And I still don't know why many of the Latin School Teachers emphasize being able to read (or maybe to write, too) only. This approach is Very Medieval Learning to me.

I know this is an old post but I just wanted to emphasize that the Middle Ages were big on being able to speak Latin. It's during the Renaissance that some Humanists began thinking that speaking Latin should be avoided because it would be detrimental to their producing elegant written Classical Ciceronian Latin (Erasmus and Muret made fun of them). If I remember correctly some things I read, some late 16th c. schoolmasters even went as far as forbidding their pupils to speak Latin on the playground because doing so without being under the supervision of a teacher could lead to them making mistakes(!). Still, spoken Latin held on somewhat and it's only in the 19th c. that the current philological, dead-language, Latin-for-reading-only (or even worse, Latin-for-mental-gymnastics-only) approach started reigning supreme.

[Querneus]

If you really want, you can learn conversational Latin via roleplaying (Dungeons and Dragons, Cyberpunk) at thepatrologist.com.

And Minecraft and Among Us videogame groups... with their homebrew terminology even (example).

Still, spoken Latin held on somewhat and it's only in the 19th c. that the current philological, dead-language, Latin-for-reading-only (or even worse, Latin-for-mental-gymnastics-only) approach started reigning supreme.

I've heard that still in 1900 at some US universities lectures on e.g. philosophy were still given in spoken Latin.

[Agorima]

Latin ceased to be spoken properly about 1300 years ago, any effort of "keeping Latin alive" is futile, it's not a utilitarian language.
There were no recordings made in the ancient Empire (not just Rome itself) with the real pronunciation.
In today's Italy, Latin phrases are spoken with just the Italian pronunciation at school.

[nooj]

I'm saddened by the parting of Father Reginald Foster. Damn the virus.

any effort of "keeping Latin alive" is futile, it's not a utilitarian language.

Any language that is or can be used is by definition useful.